Growth Alliance staff – Kelly Halsted, Jill Nelson and myself – as well as county supervisors Niki Conrad and Mark Campbell, along with other Webster County staff, attended the Gowrie Annual Spring Banquet held in the Heartland Bank Community Room on March 30.

At the banquet, Deb Brown with Save Your Town offered suggestions and insight regarding ways to make improvements within rural communities. She spoke about thinking outside of the box and being willing to try things that haven’t been tried before. Most of the points made by Deb Brown surprisingly are points already guiding Gowrie today. Leadership in Gowrie has been very progressive and innovative, which can be witnessed by the Gowrie Development Commission recently conducting a community tour for housing contractors and Realtors, showcasing why Gowrie is a great place to build. This resulted in a new relationship with home developers in Iowa.

The Gowrie Development Commission has partnered with the city to renew a housing incentive program which was previously used to build five new homes and assisted the city with the sale of the remaining nine lots in the Wiley Addition 2. The GDC is also working with a local business that is interested in converting senior-living type apartments into a multi-family unit and are pursuing options to rehabilitate or eliminate rundown housing units.

Plans are underway for new wayfinding signs to be installed in 2023. These signs will draw attention to various destinations and the many amenities in Gowrie.

The GDC is involved in a downtown facade incentive program and host regular downtown markets and other coordinated retail events. Because of their efforts, there are three downtown projects in the gestation stage.

Further, a presentation was made by Matt Cosgrove, Webster County Conservation director, on trails around Gowrie planned for 2024 and already funded and in design.

At each year’s banquet the GDC accepts nominations for and announces the Go-Getter Award winner. The Go-Getter Award celebrates the “leadership, inspiration, generosity and wisdom” of a professional in the Gowrie community. The Growth Alliance would like to congratulate this year’s winner, Bernadette Tucker.

Gowrie is a small community with a lot of passion and hometown pride. The Gowrie Development Commission works to strengthen the economy and community of Gowrie, Iowa, and to serve its members. Because of them, you find programs not typically found in smaller communities. Most all of this is due to the foresight and leadership in the Gowrie community.

We thank the members of the GDC for their efforts:

• Chelsey Worrel, president

• Kathy Carlson, vice president

• Marsha Farnham, secretary

• Seth Dolan, treasurer

• Mindy Swieter

• Phil DeCastro

• Meredith Van Zuiden

• Bruce Towne, City of Gowrie

• Troy Thomas, utilities representative

• Kevin Black, Growth Alliance representative

Gowrie is far ahead of most comparably sized communities in rural Iowa and the Growth Alliance truly values our partnership with them. Thank you for all you do.

Dennis Plautz is the chief executive officer of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance.